Marital factors are recognized as important in the onset and maintenance of symptoms of mental illness in individuals as well as in the success of treatment. The predicted relation between symptoms of mental illness in spouses and their marital relationship is a central issue in distinguishing the systems, behavioral, and analytic approaches to the treatment of both individual and marital problems. In spite of the importance of this issue, relatively little is known about the relation between symptoms in the two spouses, the relation between symptoms and marital adjustment, and the effect of different treatment strategies (individual or marital) on symptoms in the individual spouses or on the marriage itself. To date no study has examined the relation between symptoms and marital adjustment in the context of observed marital interaction, using well-accepted measures of symptoms, marital adjustment, and observed marital interaction. In this study, the connection between symptoms of mental illness in individuals and the marital relationship is conceptualized as a complex series of interrelations with severity of symptoms, gender, and duration of the marriage as major moderating variables. The aims of this study are to describe the relation of symptoms of mental illness in the two spouses to their marital adjustment and to examine whether different patterns of individual symptoms are associated with different patterns of observed marital interaction. Research participants will be 40 married couples. Recruitment is designed to attract a wide-range of couples in terms of severity of individual symptoms, marital adjustment, and duration of marriage. Couples will complete a demographic questionnaire, the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale, a sympton checklist (SCL-90-R), and two marital adjustment inventories (Dyadic Adjustment Scale and Relationship Inventory). Videotapes of the couples discussing four topics will be coded for verbal and nonverbal content using the Couple Interaction Scoring System developed by Gottman. Data will be analyzed using correlational techniques and multivariate analyses of variance. The information on how symptoms and marital conflict are manifested in observable interaction will be useful in designing more effective treatments for different combinations of individual and marital problems.